A Magical Girl Irregularity
by DigitalKites
Summary: Akemi Homura goes back in time once more, resolved to defeat the Witches, destroy Walpurgisnacht, and save Madoka from contracting, even if it takes a thousand tries. Unfortunately, instead of waking up in her hospital bed, she wakes up somewhere unusual; the First Floor of the Tower of God.
1. Awakening

_~Akemi Homura~_

Homura opened her eyes, and sat up with a gasp. This wasn't her hospital room. Everything was fuzzy and blurry, because she wasn't wearing her glasses and hadn't repaired her eyes yet. Still, she could see that she'd been sleeping in a large, unfamiliar, empty chamber. Quickly, she raised her Soul Gem to her eyes and repaired them and her heart, improving her body to the superhuman levels she was accustomed to. She undid her braids too, out of habit. Now she could see properly, and what she could see wasn't comforting.

The chamber was completely unfamiliar, and almost Labyrinth-esque. There was no ceiling- either that, or the ceiling was made from stars and galaxies, a beautiful vista of space the likes of which she'd never before seen. The walls were covered in ancient carvings of things and people she didn't recognize, but in some places were broken, revealing more stars as if this chamber was floating in space. Flaming sconces adorned the walls, providing light to the room. No- on second glance, they didn't contain flames, just... light.

There was no one in the chamber, other than herself. There were no entrances or exits either, if you didn't count the holes that led to space. Was she trapped? What exactly had happened? This had never happened before!

"Hoh~ how unusual," a peculiar voice suddenly said, as something _whisked her Soul Gem out of her hand_. "A soul in a jar. I haven't seen something like this in quite a while."

Homura whirled to face the voice, to see a person where before there had been none. It was an uncomfortably rabbit-like figure; Bipedal, and wearing a strange purple jumpsuit with white boots, and at its side a staff floated in midair, spiraling slowly. Long white ears spiked up above its similarly white head. And floating in front of its eyeless, noseless face was her Soul Gem.

Reaching to a shield that wasn't there, she tried to grab for a pistol that didn't come. It wasn't often that her Soul Gem could be taken from her.

"Give that back," she said, with gritted teeth. She glared at the alien figure, and watched as the corner of its mouth opened, revealing an alien eye peering back at her, from inside its mouth. The thing seemed to be grinning. It was as disturbingly peculiar as a Witch... but didn't feel as dark to her senses. Still, it had her Gem.

"It seems to be a little corrupted," the thing said, ignoring her order. The Gem was mostly light, but traveling back each time did use up some magic. A very small amount of darkness pooled at the very bottom of the Gem, almost too little to see.

"Give it back!" she shouted, her fists clenched and shaking from anger at her own impotence. She couldn't transform without it, and couldn't use any of her abilities. Why couldn't she have just kept hold of it?!

"If you're going to climb the tower, this little thing will be... a hindrance," it said, and then flicked a finger of its monstrous hand at her Soul Gem. And with a chiming crack, it shattered.

Homura gaped in shock as it destroyed her Soul Gem- her _soul_ , the shards dispersing as a light shone from where the gem had once been. She remembered, Kyouko's gem being shattered, the girl instantly collapsing to the ground, the light in her eyes vanishing. She leaped forward, trying somehow to stop what had already happened, and lashed out at the figure when she got close. He stepped back easily and she glared at him, but something took her attention.

Where her Soul Gem once was, a light shone, bright purple. Hesitantly, she reached out to it, and as soon as her fingers came into contact, the light zoomed into her chest. For a moment, her whole body shone the same bright purple, but when it faded, she could feel her Soul Gem- no, it was just her Soul now. She could feel it, inside her chest, like how she could feel her Soul Gem before. But now it felt... lighter. More free. Before, it'd been like crystal, but now it was more like water, shifting gently as she felt it. Could she still...?

With sudden light, she transformed, like so many times before. Her magical girl outfit replaced the pajamas she'd slept in that night in the hospital before all this had happened, and her shield collapsed outward from nothing onto her wrist. It was the same as it'd been... except the diamond where her Soul Gem should've been upon her hand was gone.

"What... what did you do?" she asked the strange being once the lightshow faded away.

"Perhaps like this, you'll last longer than a week," it said, grinning eerily with many pointy teeth. "You no longer need to worry about that corruption. Won't you thank me~? Oh, and..." The creature bowed regally to her, arms swept to the side.

"Welcome to the Tower."


	2. 1F - Headon

_~Akemi Homura~_

"My name is Headon," the thing said, arms spread wide. "I sincerely welcome you to the Tower, Miss Purple. I am the guardian of the first floor of the Tower. I apologize for earlier, it's uncommon for me to find something I haven't seen before. I was a little... carried away. What can I call you, Miss Purple?" the thing asked, not impolitely.

"What did you do to my Soul Gem?" she asked with narrowed eyes, ignoring his question. "And what is this place? How did I get here?"

"I was merely fixing your little... Soul problem. No harm done. And this is the first floor of the Tower. About how you got here... _You_ opened the door to the Tower, surely you should know how you got here?" he asked, amusement in his voice. "Now what can I call you?"

She didn't trust this thing but if it'd done what she suspected it had done, that is, return her Soul to her body but with powers intact somehow, and without the corruption over time and use? Perhaps a little trust could be given. Perhaps even...?

"My name is Akemi Homura," she said, and looked around the room again. The ceiling was still space. It didn't _look_ like a tower's first floor. "What is this Tower you keep mentioning?"

"Miss Akemi then? This Tower we are currently inside has many floors, this is merely the first," he said, explaining nothing. "Everyone that comes here has a wish. Perhaps that wish is what led you here?"

"A wish? No, thank you. I don't need wishes," she spat out the word like a curse. "How do I get out of here?" She asked. There still didn't seem any entrances to the room. How had he gotten in here?

"Get out of here? To where, exactly?" it asked, rubbing it's... she hesitated to call it a chin, since the rabbit thing didn't exactly have one. Nevertheless, it seemed to be rubbing its 'chin' in thought.

"To outside this 'Tower', of course. Where else?"

"Hoh~ you want to leave, after you only just got here? Well, there's only one way out. Head up."

"Up? How would climbing up the Tower help me leave?" Homura asked, narrowing her eyes at the thing.

"Whether it's wealth you want, or power, immortality or mysteries or even just to leave to the outside world, just head up. All the truth, glory, happiness of the world, they are all at the top of this Tower. The Tower is such a place..."

"You mean, that wish you were talking about?" she asked tersely. "At the top of the Tower you can have any Wish granted."

"You could say that."

"As I said before, no. I'll find some other way."

"Oh? You'll escape on your own?" Headon asked, sounding amused and interested. "Well if you want to leave this floor, first you're going to have to pass a test."

"A test? Is this because I refused your little proposal?"

"No no, in this Tower every time you go up a floor there is a test to see whether you are qualified to go to the next level. If you pass the test, you can proceed to the next floor. Tests are decided by the administrators and rulers of each floor, and there's no way to exit this floor, except to go up."

"I see. And you're the ruler of this floor."

"Correct! However, I'm also the administrator, too. Most floors, they're separate."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then you'll be sent to the outer layer of the Tower, to live out your days as an ordinary citizen of the Tower. Whichever floor you end up on will be the one you remain upon, until the day you die."

Homura clenched her teeth at the idea. "No way, I won't accept that! Give me your little test, let's get this over with."

"Oh? Very well. This is the test for the first floor," Headon said, and with his staff tapped gently on the wall behind him.

The wall quickly melted away to reveal a fence that reached the ceiling, and beyond the fence was a massive room, around a hundred meters long, wide, and tall. And in the room a massive black and white eel covered in red splotches flew around inside, without wings. It was almost like it was swimming through the air. And were those red splotches covering it... blood? At the very far end of the room behind the fence, a large black ball hovered in midair. The air inside the fenced area was glowing slightly.

"What... is that thing?" Homura asked, referring to the massive eel. Her question was ignored.

"This test is called 'Ball'. It is very simple. The 'Ball' is the black, man sized sphere back there," he said, and gestured to the floating sphere she'd seen earlier. "It is designed to pop, if you hit it hard enough. All you have to do to pass, is to go inside the bars and outrun or defeat the monster, and pop the ball."

"I see," Homura said.

This wasn't so different than regular Witch hunting then. Easier even, since she didn't have to kill the eel, just pop the ball. Without further ado, Homura walked past Headon and to the bars at a measured pace. She ignored his silver eye tracking her as she walked past, and pulled out a familiar Desert Eagle. It was unwieldy with too much knockback to be used normally, but in this kind of situation...

Stepping through the bars, she activated her main power.

 _-Click-_

Time stopped, the world going gray-scale.

The inside of the fenced area was strange. The air was glowing slightly as she'd noticed before, and Homura was a little worried it would be some kind of poisonous gas, but monitoring her body with magic, nothing seemed out of place as she breathed it in. As a magical girl, she didn't even need to breathe if she was willing to waste magic though. But actually... was that still true? With her Soul Gem gone... Nothing seemed different, but... She'd consider it later. Looking back, there was a visible path where she had walked that was clear of the glow, as if she'd pushed it aside. It was like a Homura-shaped tunnel.

Shortly, she reached the sphere. It was larger than her, by about a foot wider than she was tall. Would it really pop so easily? She was suspicious. Leveling the gun at the sphere, she shot a bullet, and... the bullet stopped. But it didn't stop like it normally did when time was stopped, it stopped like... like she'd tried to fire it at a wall. It flattened against the glowing air a mere inch away from the muzzle. She frowned and tried again, and the same thing happened. The bullet stopped, flattened after an inch. It was like the air... was denser! That was what the glow was, it was incredibly dense air! For some reason she herself wasn't affected by it, but her bullets? They smacked into the air like a brick wall. Then maybe...

Enchanting weapons wasn't something she did very often. It took more magic than it was worth, in her experience, but enchanted weapons gained interesting effects... like bullets being able to penetrate stone and metal. Homura ejected the clip of five remaining bullets, and enchanted each one individually to make the effects more potent, and then pushed magic into the gun as a whole as she slipped the clip back in. The gun became more streamlined, and gained a purple gem reminiscent of her Soul Gem stretching along the barrel. The metal turned dark purple, and gained lighter purple accents, and the bullets themselves became pointier, with purple gems at the tips. The enchantment had cost more magic than she'd liked, as she'd expected. If this super-dense air was common here, she'd have to come up with a better method, even if she wasn't limited to Grief Seeds anymore.

Trying again, she fired the gun at the sphere, and this time the bullets continued as she had expected. She spent the rest of that clip firing at the sphere, and then stepped back, walking back through the tunnel she'd made to stand back behind the fence.

 _-Click-_

The world regained color, and there was a sudden bang as the sound-wave from her gun reached their position. She watched as the five enchanted bullets pierced the sphere... and did nothing. The two unenchanted rounds fell to the floor... slowly. Homura frowned. Headon had said... Oh. He was trying to trick her, just like Kyubey had done. Inside the cage, the giant eel roared in anger and frustration, agitated by the sound of her gunfire.

She turned to glare at the creature. "Didn't you say that if I hit the ball hard enough, it would pop? Was that a lie?"

It looked at her, peered at her more like, as if examining her. And then it grinned, showing off many, many teeth in its mouth that stretched almost ear to ear. "That was quite something, Miss Akemi. I don't think I've ever seen someone move... quite that fast. And I've lived a long time."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Hmm~ With an ability like that, you do indeed fit in with the other Irregulars," Headon said in a musing tone, still peering at her through one silver-black eye.

"Irregulars...?"

"But it seems like the sphere is still whole. I cannot pass you if it is not popped..."

Homura glared at him, and turned to look at the sphere once more. Enchanted gunfire wouldn't do anything. Explosions... maybe. But this seemed to her to be more like a puzzle. Most of her arsenal would be difficult to use or weakened by the super-dense air. The explosions would be strengthened, but probably wouldn't pop the Ball if the piercing force of enchanted bullets didn't. RPGs and the like would hit that air and explode instantly, the air acting like a wall. They were useless. She just didn't have anything that could create enough force...

As she watched, the eel thrashed around the cage, moving extremely quickly for its size, ignoring the air, or rather, treating it like water. It was barely affected by the density. If only she had a weapon like that... Oh!

She stepped through the bars once more, this time not using her magic to stop time. Immediately, the eel moved her way, but slowly. That wouldn't do.

 _-Click-_

She reached into her shield, and removed a pipe bomb, and then leaped closer, landing atop the eel's beak. With time stopped like this, and being this close, it really was unnervingly large. Still smaller than Walpurgisnacht though, and several other witches, but it's eye was almost as large as she was tall. The eel took a moment to react, surprised to suddenly see her so close, as contact with it brought it into the time-stopped world momentarily. Before it could move or do anything, she activated the pipe bomb, dropped it in front of its eye, and then leaped back to her initial position before the bomb exploded, the eel falling back into real-time and stopping in place as she removed contact.

 _-Click-_

The eel's eye exploded. As she'd thought, the explosion was much, much smaller than it should've been, the super-dense air condensing it. On the other hand, the shock wave went much further. It truly was as if they were underwater. The eel roared in pain as it reeled back from the attack, its eye destroyed and blood spraying out, floating in the air.

Homura took this chance to quickly reload the enchanted Desert Eagle she still carried and level it at the eel before firing. This wasn't meant to harm, just get its attention. And she got it all right. Almost before she could react, the things tail whipped around ready to smash her into the wall or maybe slice right through her at the speeds it'd been going, but-

 _-Click-_

An instant before the tail hit her, time stopped. She relocated closer to the Ball, and-

 _-Click-_

Again, she fired her gun at the eel, emptying it and driving it into even more of a frenzy. The tail whipped through, but Homura dodged, jumping above the tail with magic assisted force, heading closer to the Ball once more. Finally, it seemed that the eel had had enough. It charged at her, spear-like beak pointed directly towards her. Carefully, she stayed just ahead of it with carefully timed Stops, and then when it got close enough, dived behind the Ball.

 _-Cli-Click-_

And she was back behind the fence, standing a couple meters from Headon. From here they both watched as the eel slammed, pointed beak first, into the Ball. The entire force of its anger crazed charge focused on one point, and that point pierced into the Ball.

The Ball... rippled.

They watched as the eel's tail tried to keep going, but its head was stuck in place, causing the tail to slam into it. The thing tried to roar, but with the beak stuck halfway into the Ball, it couldn't. It looked like... it couldn't get free. But the massive thing must have used thousands of pounds of force all centered on the point of its beak, all piercing into the Ball, and the Ball hadn't popped. And now it couldn't get free.

"..." Headon said.

"..." Homura said.

The eel continued struggling.

"I think this test is rigged," she finally said thirty seconds later, when the eel still couldn't get free and the Ball still hadn't popped.

"Well... Maybe it's a really well made Ball."

Homura gave him a deadpan stare. He grinned back at her, showing off many sharp teeth.

"You... don't want me to climb this Tower, do you?" Homura asked. "You're trying to prevent me from getting higher than this floor."

Headon didn't say anything.

"Answer me!" Homura shouted at him, pointing the gun at his head.

She'd hoped, when she saw him fix her Soul Gem, return her soul to her body, that she could trust him, that he could help. She'd tried so many times, so many different ways to save everyone, to save Madoka. But it never worked. She always died, or contracted and became a Witch. And this thing, this Headon, he'd made it so that Homura didn't have to fear becoming a Witch, just like that. Just a flick, and Homura was saved. But now she saw that he was just as manipulative, just as cruel as the Incubator.

And now he wasn't going to let her go? That meant that this timeline was already a waste. She'd hoped... hoped that something here she'd be able to take back, to increase her chances of success, but if it was like this she may as well just give up. Restart. Even if she never saw this again, in a different timeline.

"Miss Akemi," his voice interrupted her thoughts, and she brushed away the tears that had crept down her cheeks. "I test those who get to the Tower, but my test is equivalent to the value of their wish. Your test is incredibly hard, because your wish is incredibly valuable. Ask yourself, what do you really wish for, truly? Is it simply to leave, or..."

What she truly wished for? That would probably be... saving Madoka. No, saving their whole group, her first friends. Mami, Sayaka, Kyouko, and Madoka... No, not just saving them, preventing them from ever becoming magical girls, like Madoka had asked. Or maybe... if she could have any wish? It would be preventing any magical girl from ever having been tricked by Kyubey, at any point in history. Yes, that wish... that wish would be incredibly valuable.

"I think you understand now," Headon said when Homura looked at him. She nodded. If the Tower really could grant any wish, this wish of hers would be... infinitely valuable. Regardless of consequence to herself. "At the top of this tower, all wishes are granted. You need only reach it," he said, looking up at the starry ceiling. "Many try, but so far, none have succeeded. Would you attempt where they failed? It is not an easy path. You might die."

The last wish she took doomed her to life as a magical girl, and eventual death or Witch-hood. But, it'd also given her opportunity. Without it, she'd be dead. Madoka would be dead. The entire city of Mitakihara would be dead. If the same choice was given to her once more, she'd take it immediately. This wasn't the same. Now that she knew the possibilities, and the possible consequences, the choice was different. If Headon wasn't lying to her and she really could have any wish granted at the top, then whatever the cost, it was worth it.

"I don't know if I can trust your 'wish', but... if it means saving everyone... I'd do whatever it took. I'd live for that goal. I'd die for that goal. Whether the path is difficult or not, I don't care. I will succeed. If I can truly save everyone at the top of this tower... Then there's no question. I will do it."

"Hmm~ I like your determination. Very well, then perhaps one more test..."

* * *

 _~Headon~_

Back on the first floor, less than a second after Homura vanished, a girl crashed down.

"What the, she's already gone?" Ha Yuri Jahad said aloud. "Headon!" she called, turning to the Tower's Administrator. "That was the Irregular, right? Did she already pass your test? Damn, I wanted to talk to her, after seeing her move... like _that_ ," the Princess said, obviously not sure what to make of the Irregular's ability. "So she's on the Floor of the Test now, right?"

"Indeed. However..."

There was a sudden light, and a boy appeared out of nowhere.

"...However, today seems like... a very busy day."

Many sharp teeth gleamed from a vicious grin.


	3. 2F - Evankhell's Hell

_~Akemi Homura~_

The wind blew through the tall grass, making a soft shaaa~ noise as the grass bent and waved, undulating like waves in the ocean before reaching the beach. The sun shone down, bright and earnest, illuminating a bright blue sky. Except... there was no sun. When she looked up, Homura could see eight distinct lights. The sky was merely a ceiling, way high up, and painted blue. At least the few clouds were real.

Just below cloud layer, a floating building could be seen, looking like it'd been yanked out of the ground, dirt, rocks and all. It was an eclectic, colorful building, with many windows on each side and strange designs everywhere. The largest such was a brightly lit banner across the top, with a single huge word upon it. It read 'Evankhell'.

Across the fields, around the hills and cliffs of dirt and rock, Homura could see other figures. Some seemed normal but others were distinctly not. There was a towering figure with red skin and curved horns for instance, and another that looked like a bipedal crocodile holding a long spear. She herself stood in a clearing in the grass, alone save for a tall, brown-haired man, holding what looked like a scimitar except the tip arced back much further than normal, and it had no blade. It looked a little like a very long hook, facing backwards.

Suddenly, there was a static sound, and then a cheery voice resounded.

"Mic test! Mic test! One two three! Aha! Hello everyone!"

Homura looked around and found a brass cube floating high above them. The voice seemed to be coming from it.

"Hello everyone! All the Regulars who have made it to the tower!"

'Regulars'? Homura glanced at the scimitar-man. Was he a 'Regular'? Wait, was Homura a 'Regular'? Headon did say something about 'Irregulars'...

"We sincerely welcome all of you, to the 2nd floor, Evankhell's Floor! This is Evankhell's floor, but it is also called the 'Floor of Tests', because here we carry out the final tests to see whether you are qualified to go up the Tower or not!"

Well, Headon hadn't been lying about having to take tests to get higher, it seemed.

"Well- I will explain the details to you later. First, let's start the first test! The first test is simple. I will explain the rules, so listen carefully!"

The test is simple? Headon had said the same thing. She didn't trust this person any more than she trusted Headon. The field stretched on for as far as she could see though, and no telling that there was actually any way to get out of here except by solving whatever this test would be...

"The rule for the first test is as follows! There are 400 Regulars here. Narrow down that 400 down to 200! Try every possible means! The test finishes when the number of Regulars reaches 200! Ready~ Begin!"

Wait, narrow down 400 Regulars down to 200, in any way possible? What, did that mean... killing 200 people? Was he insane!?

Movement across the clearing caught her attention. The man from before was looking at her with narrowed eyes, holding his hook-thing ready. No way, was he really going to...?

"Aaaahhh!" A scream suddenly echoed across the field.

Homura turned to see where it'd come from, but then she heard a bang in the distance, and an instant later there was the familiar sound of a high caliber bullet as one whizzed by, narrowly missing her. And then she realized it hadn't missed, when she saw the hook-man's head explode as the bullet passed through it. Homura watched as blood splattered the ground, red shining in the bright midday light, and as the man's body hit the ground she flinched.

 _-Click-_

The world became gray-scale. Homura stared at the body of the man who moments before had been alive, and now was a bloody carcass. Despite seeing people die in the previous timelines, it'd never been so... pointless. Not unless they were under a Witch's control. She glanced around, and saw countless conflicts already active. People were killing each other... simply because a man had told them to do so through a speaker. This Tower... It was a dangerous place. Homura steeled her emotions, and turned to face the direction the bullet had come from.

 _-Click-_

"Wha-!" the strange insectile sniper barely had time to shout in surprise before she kicked him across the head where he lay on the ground at the top of a cliff. The toe of her boot hit the man in the temple, and he collapsed on top of his sniper rifle, unconscious. Bending down, she checked to make sure he was still alive, and found his breathing okay, his pulse strong. When her hands rested against his neck she felt like strangling him. How could someone kill someone else so easily, so uncaringly?

But obviously this man wasn't alone. From here, she could see countless conflicts raging across the fields. People were shooting each other with guns or arrows, they were stabbing each other, cutting each other down with swords, throwing spears at each other, and a few were even throwing around obviously magical attacks.

A heavy footfall had her spin around, eyes narrowed. Her head slowly raised to look up to meet the eyes of a massive bipedal crocodile dressed in red and brown robes, and with a long red spear in hand. He glared down at her as she prepared to stop time and... do what was necessary. This being wouldn't be taken out by a single kick, she was sure.

There was a moment of tense silence, and then he snorted and turned away, going over to look over the cliff edge, though he kept Homura in sight, never turning his back. Homura sighed in relief and sat down on the other side of the cliff, resolving to wait this out. She couldn't save everyone. She needed to focus on what was important; finding a way out, gathering any tools this place could provide that might be helpful, and saving Madoka.

Eventually, the crocodile left, giving Homura a surprisingly intense stare as he jumped off the edge. And then it was just her, looking out at the conflict. The wind blew across the field, making a pleasant shaaa~ sound, but it carried the scent of blood with it. The sounds of clashing steel, blunt crashes, and screams drifted over with the wind, too. At one point a fighting pair moved to the top of her little bluff, and Homura was forced to move across the battlegrounds to avoid them.

But as she traveled, she couldn't help but wonder; 'How did any of these people manage to get past Headon's tests?' These people, for all their ruthless violence, were incredibly weak compared to her imagined idea of the average person who managed to get past the first floor. No answers were forthcoming however, and eventually...

Ringgggggggggggg~!

"Mic test~! Everyone stay where you are! The first test is over now!"

Homura let out a little sigh of relief, but didn't lower her gun from her target just yet. Likewise, the girl in front of her didn't lower her hands. She'd been surprised when this pink-haired girl had appeared from the brush, and instinctively pulled out a gun, ready to fire on a Witch's Familiar. The bloody battles occurring around her had caused her battle instinct to rise, and she'd pulled the gun without thinking about it.

She was glad she hadn't actually fired though; with that pink hair and eyes, she reminded Homura of Madoka, even if this girl's hair was longer than Madoka's, and kept loose and straight. She was a lot older than Madoka as well, looking around 16~17 rather than 14. She was surprisingly beautiful though. Distinguished features, and pale, noble looking. She'd look much prettier though, if she didn't look so exhausted and worn out. She had bags under her eyes, dark rings from lack of sleep. Her hair was grimy, and she looked like she hadn't properly bathed in days.

Likewise, her clothes were worn out, and looked damaged from both combat and travel. Her simple black shirt was fraying at the hems, and her leggings had a couple rips... and blood stains. She even had a bandage around her lower left leg. Her ragged black skirt was no better, and her simple flats were badly scuffed. What had this girl gone through?

"The remaining Regulars, stop what you're doing and listen carefully!" the intercom guy said, "Any Regulars fighting from now on will be eliminated!"

Homura slowly lowered her gun, the girl in front of her lowering her arms. She'd been one of the ones using magic, Homura recognized now. Is that why she'd had her hands ready? It hadn't looked like a martial arts stance, and wasn't quite a surrender pose either. Maybe magic in this tower required your hands to be open and facing your opponent?

"The 200 Regulars who passed the first test, congratulations to all of you! It's a bit of a rush... but a short second test will be carried out right away!"

The girl in front of Homura sighed and looked merely annoyed, but Homura gritted her teeth. She'd been trying to avoid thinking about it because there was nothing she could do about it, but the way the man said that... It was like he was saying, 'You killed them all, good job! Now let's do it again!' He didn't even care that 200 people had just been killed! These kinds of people... They didn't deserve protection from Witches.

Sudden uncomfortable sensation rose, and Homura buried her anger, buried her regret at not being able to save anyone, buried her disappointment with the world. That feeling, she recognized it. It was corruption, her Soul darkening from despair. Hadn't Headon fixed that? He'd said that she wouldn't have to worry about corruption! Damned lying rabbit things! Suppress, suppress, suppress. Can't let the corruption grow. When the bland comfort of apathy once again reigned supreme, she slowly uncurled her fists, which ached a little after being clenched so tight.

"Haha! Don't be so disappointed!" the intercom continued after a moments pause, uncaring of her anger. "The next test is really simple! Now here is the challenge for the 2nd test. The challenge is 'Getting Teammates!' There are 200 remaining Regulars here!" the man said from the intercom.

"From those who remain, find 2 Regulars to be your teammates! In short the test is to make a team of 3!"

Homura glanced at the pink haired girl, who looked back at her and began speaking.

"My name is-" the girl started saying, but then-

"For your reference, we're giving you a 5 minute time limit!" the intercom interrupted. "Of course, if you don't make a team in those five minutes, you are eliminated! Oh! And one more thing- to be considered a team, you need to be touching some part of your teammates' bodies when the time limit is over! Then, all of you~ Good luck!" And the intercom shut off.

"My name," the girl started again, glaring at the floating cube. "is Eu- I mean, Rose Aya. It's a pleasure to meet you!" she said with a forced smile.

"Akemi Homura. It's nice to meet you," Homura said politely, though coldly. Aya's obviously fake smile faded a little to something more genuine, if dimmer, and tired looking.

"I guess that makes us team members?" she asked. "I hope we can work together then."

Homura didn't respond. Most of the people here were murderers, why would she want to be friends with them? She would be teammates if she had to, but she'd never trust them. However... as loathe as she was to find more, they needed a third member. She quickly looked across the field. Most of the people were already in groups, but she thought she could see a single person standing by themselves...

"You're not a very talkative person, are-?"

As she spoke, the other girl swept her hair back in an unconscious gesture. For just a moment her hand covered her eyes, and-

 _-CliClick-_

Homura appeared behind the man who had been standing alone in the distance, and stepped out of his blind-spot. This close, she could see details; Like Aya he was pale, but he had yellow eyes and dark blue hair. Most of his body was swathed in a concealing robe-like garb, and he had sandals on his feet. His chin was covered in rough looking stubble, and he had scars covering his left eye and the skin around it. It looked like someone had slashed him up at some point in the past. He held no weapons, but... there was blood on his hands. Literally. He spun to face her as she stepped around him, alerted by Homura's footsteps. She paused. She hadn't really thought about how to ask him to join their team. For a minute, there was an awkward silence. Homura didn't know what to say, and the man seemed to not care about saying anything.

A short time later though, she didn't have to. "Hey!" a familiar voice called. They turned to see Aya coming towards them at a jog. "Don't just- just vanish when I'm talking to you!" she complained.

"Huh, I know that appearance. Eurasia Aya, isn't it?" the man suddenly asked.

"What? N-no, I'm just, just Rose Aya. Not this... Eurasia person," Aya said, but her face and voice told a different story. Was she trying to lie? She was terrible.

"You can't lie worth a damn, girl," the man said bluntly.

"No, really," Aya said, almost desperately. "I'm just Rose Aya!"

"You're not fooling anyone, 'Almost Princess'." He said the words like they were a title, but how could 'Almost Princess' be a title? "If you wanna hide who you are, you're gonna need to do better than that. Anyway, m'names Fuorr Lutos. Just call me Lutos."

"I, I don't know what you're talking..." she trailed off as we both stared at her unimpressed. "Alright, I'm Eurasia Aya. Don't tell anyone, please," she said, looking depressed.

"I don't sell out my teammates," the man said, and yawned. "So don't worry about it."

"'Almost Princess'?" Homura asked. "What does that mean?"

"And who are you?" the man, Lutos interrupted.

"Akemi Homura. Why 'Almost Princess', and why are you trying to hide your name?"

Lutos gave a sidelong glance to Aya, and tilted his head in her direction. She glanced at him, and then sighed.

"I... don't want to talk about it..." Aya said, sounding resigned and unhappy. Homura tilted her head, and then nodded in acceptance. It didn't matter to her. If it became relevant, she'd figure it out later. Aya looked relieved that Homura accepted, and looked away across the fields.

"How long until it's time?" Homura asked, not wanting to be 'disqualified'.

"Just thirty seconds or so," the man said. "Here." He held out his left hand. Homura gingerly took it. It was rough, calloused. Thankfully, it was cleaner than his right hand. On her other side Aya held out her hand to Homura as well. This girl may have looked a bit like Madoka, but she acted nothing like her, and she obviously had a sordid past, if she was trying to fake her name. She was just as bad at lying as Madoka, though. The thought made her smile.

A short while later, the intercom started ringing once more. "The second test is over now!" the man said through the intercom. "Hold together with your teammates for a while. The three people holding each other at this moment are considered a team! You'll be sent to the next test spot now!"

There was a flash of light.

* * *

 _So, I was initially going to go completely A/N free for this fic, but I think there'll be too much confusion if I do so, so here's an A/N. If you don't care you can skip this. It's not really important. If you had questions/concerns though, read through this first before messaging me, ok?  
_

 _Anyway, before this chapter it hasn't been too obvious, but Homura's characterization may have seemed a bit off in this one. This is on purpose. It won't be mentioned/explained in the fic for a long time if ever, so I'll just say it here; this isn't Homura as of the canon final timeline. It's around her fifth timeline, so she's not as hard as you may be used to. For the purposes of this fic, this Homura is a lot more interesting, both to write and (hopefully) to read.  
_

 _Another thing I should mention is that I'm writing this assuming the reader has some knowledge of Madoka Magica, and no knowledge of Tower of God, because PMMM is more popular and widespread. Unfortunately, that means there will be a bunch of exposition next chapter, about important stuff that you'll need to know for the rest of the fic. I did my best to keep it interesting, and also used the opportunity for characterization and a little plot development, so hopefully it's not boring. That's for next chapter though._

 _If you're reading this from the ToG side of things and have no idea who Homura is in canon PMMM, basically she's a magical girl who can stop time, travel back in time once a month, and wants more than anything to save her best friend Madoka from a fate worse than death. Everything else is probably unimportant for now._

 _A couple main character OCs were introduced this chapter, and I didn't notice that one looked just like Rin from Shelter until about 3 chapters past this point. So, if you want to know what Aya looks like, search for Rin from Shelter on google images. Her hair, face, and eyes are very similar, though clothes and personality are very different. Aya also is much more toned, athletic, and a little older. I don't have an example for Lutos... Do your best?_

 _Feel free to message me or review if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or criticism. I read all of them (messages/reviews)._


	4. 2F - Lero-Ro's Test

_~Akemi Homura~_

The room they ended up in was large and spacious. With more flashes of light, more and more people began appearing, and now that they were all closer Homura could see that there really was quite a lot of unusual beings here. Some had wings, some had extra arms, some were gigantic, some were tiny. There was even a giant canary walking around, and some kind of shadow monster.

Homura couldn't help but be taken aback by them all. It wasn't strange for her to see the unusual in Labyrinths, but Witches and Familiars weren't exactly beings she could have a conversation with. This all was just... unreal.

"You're looking around like you've never seen anything like this," Lutos said, raising a dark blue eyebrow at her. "Sights like this aren't common, but you still should'a seen most of these species before..."

Homura glanced up at him impassively, and then away. Let him make whatever assumption he wanted.

Off in the distance shouting broke out, and she watched as a blond man in a... peculiar white and black suit went and broke up the fight before it could get physical.

"Oh I know him, he's Lero-ro, one of the Rankers for this floor!" Aya said.

"Ranker?"

"Yeah, you know, someone who's climbed to the top of the Tower."

"But I thought... that no-one had reached the top yet. That's what Headon told me," Homura said, confused.

"Oh, well yeah, I mean, no-one has gotten to the very top yet. Only Irregulars can explore new floors, and none of them have been climbing recently. But when Regulars reach the current top, they become Rankers. But... surely you know all this? It's common knowledge..." Aya said, trailing off uncertainly. Lutos too, was scrutinizing her. It was uncomfortable. Especially since she couldn't just disappear on them. They were her 'teammates', and she might need them later.

In the end, she just shrugged. Aya and Lutos glanced at each other, before Lutos too shrugged, and Aya sighed and looked away.

"Mic test~! Regulars, over here! Please focus," a voice spoke. Homura turned to see the blond 'Ranker' from before had moved to a stage on one side of the room. He... was not speaking into a microphone. Somehow, his voice was still being projected around the room though. "I will explain the next round! Before that~ To give you some brief information about myself. I'm your test administrator, Ranker Lero-Ro! Nice to meet chu!"

A groan and deadpan stares went around the room at his overly perky introduction before he continued.

"Now~ I guess you've had enough rest, let's go on to the next test! But before that, there will be a little pre-test! FYI! Those who don't pass this pre-test, cannot take the next test!"

Tests upon tests upon tests... Wait, was this the same person as the one who had told them to kill 200 people? His voice...

"Haha! Don't worry! It is a really simple pre-test! Relax!" He held his hand out, gesturing for everyone to come forward... with a twisted smile on his face. Aya started moving close as he began calling for people to come closer, but Homura held her back with a hand on her shoulder. If this was the monster who'd told them to murder half the competition, anything he asked should be examined carefully, from a distance.

"What, what is it?" Aya asked, head tilted to the side in confusion.

Homura just pointed forward towards Lero-Ro. As they watched he suddenly slammed his hand forward, and a shield of glowing blue light formed in front of him and launched towards them. It smashed aside everyone in its path, and though it stopped just before their little trio, they had to duck and dodge a couple people who had been standing in front of them and were sent flying by the sudden assault.

"A-ah, thanks," Aya said. Homura nodded in acknowledgment, but was distracted by the shield he'd thrown. It felt... strange. To some sense she'd never known she'd had before, she could feel it. She felt like if she wanted to, she could reach out, grab it, and-

"Is this Shinsu?" a voice suddenly called, distracting her. She glanced over to see a boy with dark blue eyes and pale blue hair. Oddly, his clothes looked like normal, modern clothes; a shirt, tie, and black slacks. He carried a small brown bookbag at his side. Since so many people were using swords and other old fashioned things, she hadn't expected to see such modern clothing. Then again, Lero-Ro's suit was fairly modern too, if peculiar. Aya's outfit as well would fit in pretty well in Mitakihara if it wasn't so badly damaged.

"Yep~ I instantly compacted the shinsu to make a veil and then threw it to push you," Lero-Ro responded. "As you well know, shinsu is everywhere in the tower, and it plays an important role because it creates the air and water."

So this was 'shinsu', and it was in the air and water, too... Now that she was paying attention, she could feel it everywhere. It wasn't _in_ the air, it _was_ the air! How had she missed this? Breathing, she couldn't tell the slightest difference. It didn't feel like she was breathing shinsu, just... air. But to her other senses, she could feel it. It was different than her magic, like water where her magic was more like electricity or fire or force, depending on how she used it. The shinsu was slippery too, and didn't seem to want to be grasped, but it felt like she might be able to manipulate it some. To what effect? She wasn't certain.

"However," Lero-Ro continued, "shinsu sometimes can be a powerful murder weapon depending on its use. Highly concentrated shinsu is so strong that it can break bones, so all the contestants in the Tower use shinsu to fight. However, there are people who show adverse reactions to shinsu. In other words, those who can't deal well with shinsu are not appropriate candidates to be in the Tower. The people who can pass through the veil at least don't have adverse reactions to shinsu."

Homura quickly connected the dots; this was also the stuff that was in the cage in Headon's floor. The air had been super-dense down there, which was from the shinsu. It'd allowed the eel to 'swim' around, and had stopped her un-enchanted bullets, because the bullets showed adverse reactions for some reason. That didn't explain why she didn't feel a thing back then though, it'd just felt like... air. Maybe here, with this shield Lero-Ro created, it'd be different...?

"The teams that pass through the veil pass the test as well, and those who don't, fail. Alright then everyone, please come through," he said, finishing his speech with a smile. At least it wasn't creepy this time.

Curious, she stepped forward and reached out to touch the veil... and her hand went straight through. She couldn't even tell something was there. Expecting to encounter at least a little resistance, she stumbled and ended up on the other side, the shinsu veil closing behind her. For a moment there was silence, and Homura felt the weight of countless stares on her back at how easily she'd slipped through. Lero-Ro had a shocked expression himself, though it quickly faded under a mask of amiability. Uncomfortable at the stares, she flipped her hair over her shoulder in a nervous gesture.

And then the shouts started.

"Hey that girl got through, it must be easy!"

"It must be so weak that a kid can get through!"

"Haha, he had us going there, huh?"

And so on. But... it only lasted until those people actually started trying to walk through. Some people slipped through, sure, but none did so as easily as Homura did. And most... had trouble. They would touch the barrier, it would bend a little, and then it would reject them with a burst of electricity and force.

One boy had managed to get through easily though; an ordinary looking boy only a little older than herself, with brown hair and gold eyes and a long black needle-like weapon in hand. She hadn't noticed when he'd come through, because he was off to the side, but he was the only one on this side with her. When she met his eyes he smiled nervously at her, and waved the hand that wasn't holding his black needle. She nodded to him. If he had also managed to get through the veil that so many were having trouble with, it might be a bad idea to antagonize him. On the other hand, he seemed incredibly... ordinary. By sensing for this new shinsu stuff, she could feel which of the people here were strong or weak, and this boy... weak. That needle on the other hand... It felt like a lightning storm waiting to be unleashed, and... it felt like it was watching her somehow. Either way though, he was completely blood-free, and she couldn't really see him actually killing someone, unlike... everyone else here. Well, it didn't matter, he was unusual. She'd keep an eye on him.

A few seconds after Homura had stumbled through, Aya and Lutos came after her. Neither had too much trouble, the veil parting easily around them. Homura glanced at their faces for any reaction to her stumble that had caused such consternation, but if they were surprised it didn't show. Lutos just looked as aloof as ever, folding his arms and glaring at people jostling nearby, while Aya stared off in the distance, seemingly lost in thought.

Other people started petering through one by one as well, and the ordinary looking guy she'd noticed before was eventually joined by the blue-eyed blue-haired boy, and the giant crocodile person from the first test. Meanwhile, Lero-Ro stood on the stage watching it all, interceding only once, when a tall man wearing blue and with blue hair began shouting.

"Damn it! How can this useless test eliminate me?! I don't know what this 'veil' is all about, but I am strong enough without any stupid powers!" the man shouted.

Lero-Ro walked over to the man, passing through the barrier as if it wasn't there, and approached him, head down.

"What? What more do you have to say?" the man asked, but Lero-Ro remained silent. "I'm sick of listening to your nonsense. You think you're above us just because you're a Ranker? You just look skinny and weak-"

"Ha! This isn't going to go well for him..." Lutos said from where he was standing to Homura's side, arms still crossed. "Insulting a Ranker, a Test Administrator like that? Never a good idea."

"Keh!" Lero-Ro suddenly laughed, interrupting the man's continuing tirade. "This was your last chance, and you didn't get that. How stupid are you?"

"...What?"

"Fine, then," he continued, "I will teach you the harsh way so that you realize about the power that lies above, and why you can't go up," he said as blue-white sparks started fluttering around him. Was that also shinsu?

"There is no limit to shinsu," Lero-Ro explained. "With shinsu you can obtain immortality or god-like powers. There are rumors that Enryu the notorious can create life using shinsu. However, as it is for every man-" The lightning around Lero-Ro grew thicker, and expanded around him, surrounding the man who had been shouting complaints. "We each have our own limits. When one faces an opponent with infinite possibility and discovers his limits, he falls into despair."

"Wha-what's this," the man said as the shinsu-sparks grew around them, and for a moment just looked confused, but then... Homura watched as he grabbed his head and screamed in agony as she saw and felt that familiar super-dense air surround him. She could tell it wasn't as potent as the shinsu on the first floor, but it was a lot more dense than the veil was. If he couldn't even pass through the veil... How did he manage to survive Headon's tests?

"That veil of shinsu was my last show of mercy before you enter the Tower and fall into deeper despair." Lero-Ro said over the sound of the man's screams. "Those who don't qualify... Get lost. Feeling pain?" he asked with a quirked brow, as if it wasn't obvious from the man's reactions. "The concentration of shinsu on you right now, is normal above the 30th floor."

The man grimaced and stared in disbelief, teeth gritted in pain, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Do you get it now? The reason you can't go up?" Lero-Ro asked, finally removing the pressure. "It's not like you were not strong enough, or your effort wasn't enough. It's just because you just weren't one of the chosen ones. Go back to the floor you came from. You're not qualified to climb the tower."

And then Lero-Ro just walked away, ignoring the man's calls, his begging for answers, asking why he wasn't chosen. No response was given.

"Harsh, but true," Aya said as the looked on.

"How did that man get past Headon's tests, if he couldn't get through the veil?" Homura finally asked.

Lutos raised an eyebrow. "Headon doesn't test Regulars. Are you saying he tested you?"

"Well, yes."

"Hm... Headon doesn't test everyone. Don't tell anyone that he tested you okay?" Lutos said with a frown as he glanced around at the people around them. "I'll explain why later."

She stared at him for a moment, before finally nodding. The way he looked around... it seemed like he was trying to keep it a secret that Headon tested her. Strange...

The sound of shouted insults drifted over, and Homura looked to see the man who Lero-Ro had tortured in the center of another commotion. The man's teammates had both managed to get through the barrier, but now they returned to the only member of their team who could not, and they were not happy. If one member of the team failed, so did the rest of the team. Neither of his teammates could pass the test, even though they managed to get through the barrier. Now, the ones he had teamed up with were both shouting at him, about how because of him they couldn't pass the test, about how he was useless, a waste of space, that he should never have been born. The man took it all, kneeling, crushed from the weight of his failure. The shinsu that Lero-Ro had brought upon him wasn't that heavy; what was holding him down was the weight of his despair.

Homura did nothing to help him.

* * *

 _~Akemi Homura~_

"So! Tell me about yourselves," Aya said in a soft voice, as they waited for the test to conclude.

Homura just looked at her. Lutos made an amused sound.

"What? We're teammates now, we need to know what we all can do if we want to work well together, right? I already know that you're... ridiculously fast, Homura. I blinked, and you vanished... Literally. How do you even move that fast with exploding the ground or something?"

Lutos looked at her in consideration, but didn't say anything. Homura remained silent.

"Ugh, fine, I'll go first. I'm a wave controller, a fairly good one, if I do say so myself. I can almost control my second baang, and have pretty good endurance," she said in a hushed tone, leaning in towards them. She was surprisingly active, for looking dead tired.

"Hmm..." Lutos hummed in consideration, scratching his chin.

Homura decided she didn't care anymore what these people thought about her ignorance. "Wave controller?" she asked, "Baang?"

"Hah!?" Aya reared back in surprise. Several people nearby turned to look. "I mean... Huh? How can you not know what a wave controller or a baang is?" she whispered, glaring at the people looking until they looked away.

"Pretend I don't know anything about the Tower," Homura told her.

"Don't know anything... Seems like I got a strange team..." The girl sighed.

"Like _you_ got a strange team?" Lutos interrupted. "You're part of the strangeness! On the other hand, I'm normal."

"Oh, whatever, be quiet. Lemme explain this," Aya said, ignoring his interruption. Lutos grumbled to himself. "Okay, everywhere in the tower, there's shinsu, right? You breathe it with every breath, it creates water, you can use it to make light, heat, and so on. It's basically limitless what you can do with it."

That sounded... incredibly useful. If Homura could learn how to use this shinsu and take it with her when she went back in time... This peculiar timeline seemed to be getting better and better. The longer she stayed here, the more likely she'd succeed at saving everyone. And if she managed to make it to the top, then she could... wish everyone was safe? She still wasn't certain about that.

On the other hand, she still needed to find a way out of here. She only had a few days until Madoka contracted with Kyubey. That was something Homura never wanted to see happen again, but so far there seemed to be no way out of this tower yet. If she needed to climb higher before she could get out, and it took more than a couple days to do so... that would mean this entire timeline is already a bust. If it takes more than a few days to get out, should she just focus on getting as many useful items and as much knowledge from this tower as she could before traveling backwards? But that would mean essentially abandoning Madoka this timeline-

"Hey pay attention, I'm trying to help you here!" Aya said, breaking her train of thought. "You listening now?"

Homura nodded.

"Good. A Wave Controller is someone who uses shinsu directly to fight. They do stuff like creating fire, lightning, sending out blast-waves, and so on. Other positions also use shinsu, but mostly to strengthen themselves or their equipment, understand?"

Homura nodded again. So wave-controllers used magical attacks, while other 'positions' used magic like most magical girls did, to enhance themselves. Interesting.

"A baang is a unit of shinsu. You need one baang to be able to attack with shinsu, but you don't need them for reinforcement. A baang is just for external attacks. This, is a baang," she said, and held her hands out, cupped. In the hollow her hands created, a peculiar light appeared. It was spherical, and glimmered pinkish white, and warped and wavered strangely. A few moments later, it faded away as Aya took her hands away.

"How do you create a baang?" Homura asked.

"Hmmmm... well, the way I was taught, you just imagine a world in your palm. My family is incredibly gifted with shinsu though, so I... Oh! Good job...?" Aya trailed off, as she saw what Homura was doing.

In one hand, a purple sphere hovered. A... baang? It was surprisingly easy to create and control. It felt... strange. Not like her normal magic, and... it wasn't draining her soul, either. Shinsu felt so alien that it was easy to control now that she knew what it was. Her baang didn't look like Aya's had though; unlike that bright pink glimmering of light, Homura's was an endlessly shifting bright purple cloud. It looked a little like an explosion in miniature.

"Are you sure this is your first time using shinsu...?" Aya asked hesitantly.

Homura nodded.

"Well! I guess you do have some talent then..."

"Hah! Talent," Lutos grunted in amusement. "Talented people take years to create one baang. Most people never manage it. One in a million prodigies can create their first baang in a month or two." Lutos stared at Homura incredulously. "To create a baang in a few seconds, when you've never heard of them before? What kind of monster are you, kid?"

Homura shifted slightly, but bore the scrutiny stoically. She hadn't bothered hiding her knowledge in the past couple timelines during classes, and the other students and teachers reactions had been similar to his. She was used to being outstandingly good. She... just hadn't expected to be so with something she'd never even known existed before now.

"Hey, no need for insults!" Aya chimed in. "She's not a 'monster', she's just..." she trailed off helplessly. Homura could see the incredulity in her expression. She was trying to hide it, but Homura could tell. She didn't understand how Homura could do that. She was surprised, envious, and even... a little scared.

Homura looked away. She wasn't here to make friends.

"Well, whatever," Lutos said after a moment. "As long as you're on _my_ side, I don't give a damn. I'm a Fisherman." He paused. "I bet you don't know what that is, either, huh?" he asked, but continued on before Homura could say anything. "Fishermen are the close quarters guys. We bring the offense to the enemy. Sometimes with shinsu attacks like Wave Controllers but most often physically. I myself am a master martial artist, and good at using shinsu to enhance my body. Got it?"

Homura nodded.

"The other positions are Light Bearer, who coordinate the battlefield and guide the teammates, Spear-Bearer, who are generally long ranged attackers, and Scouts, who move quickly around the battlefield gathering intelligence and returning it to the Light Bearer," Aya explained.

"I see," Homura said. Knowing all of that... Homura could probably fit all the positions. With time stopped, scouting would be a pinch. Long ranged attacks were something Homura had a lot of experience with, tangling with Walpurgisnacht. And her main method of fighting witches was to get in close and blow them up. While time was stopped, of course. Would that be Spear-Bearer or Fisherman, if she went in close and then retreated while time was stopped? Or maybe it'd fall under Scout... And she could easily coordinate a battlefield by stopping time and moving between teammates, though at that point she may as well just take the whole battle into her own hands.

"So? What do you think you'd fall under, Homura?" Aya asked.

"All of them," Homura said.

"All- All of them!?" Aya reared back in surprise. For the second time in as many minutes, several people all turned to look at them. Aya glared them away. Again. "All of them?" she asked again, more hushed. "Even Light-Bearer?"

Homura nodded, wondering why she was specifically asking about Light-Bearer.

"What she means," Lutos explained, "is that Light-Bearers need special equipment. A Lighthouse. If you didn't know anything about the classes before now, then how can you have a Lighthouse?"

"Oh."

"Mhm. I thought so."

A door opening nearby interrupted their conversation, and out of it stepped a blond woman dressed in yellow and black. Despite sharing Mami's color scheme, she looked nothing like the other magical girl. Instead, this girl merely reminded Homura of a bee.

"Those of you who passed, make a line!" she called to the Regulars clustered around the room. "The next test will be on a first come first served basis!"

It was time for the next test.

* * *

 _A/N: For those who've read ToG, you'll have recognized the first half of this, and realized that Homura's already made a few changes. By stumbling through the barrier so obviously accidentally, she took all the attention away from Baam. Lero-ro didn't notice him slip through with ease as he does in canon, and never had a talk with him about Irregulars. The other contestants also didn't spot him, so right now, he's still a complete unknown to everyone. Well, everyone except Headon and the people he talks to, but really. Who would Headon talk to?_

 _I want to clarify this test a little, based on my own thoughts and careful examinations and re-examinations of that part of the ToG chapter. The veil Lero-ro threw isn't that powerful, maybe floor 20 level. Most of the people in the room got through it. The reason they were thrown away in the beginning, is because sudden concentrations of shinsu like that are rare. Nearly everyone needs to brace themselves when moving into higher density shinsu, no matter who they are or how powerful. That's why you see people like Anak get thrown away by the veil but then walking through it mere moments later with ease. (To PMMM readers, Anak will be introduced in about 2~3 chapters. If you remember this note, she's the lizard girl (smiley face)). So, what Baam does in canon is extremely impressive; the veil did literally nothing to him. What Homura did wasn't quite as impressive though; she stumbled through the barrier as if it wasn't there. The difference is that Homura knew it was there and the onlookers might have thought she did brace herself, just a little too much, while Baam seemed like he wasn't affected at all, even when he didn't know what was coming._

 _Well, on to other things... Most of the exposition is out of the way for a while, locked away in that little second section. That was originally going to be part of the next chapter, but I decided it read and flowed better this way. Hope you don't mind an extra ~1.5k words! Well, I'm a little worried you will mind those extra words, because not many people like exposition..._

 _Next chapter will be Han Sung Yu's test. I hope you look forward to it!_

 _Oh, and one more thing, I've been putting my thoughts about this fic on my profile page occasionally, because it helps me work out how I want the story to go. If you don't care about spoilers, go ahead and read it. I'll warn the PMMM crowd though; you won't understand a lot of the ToG stuff. I'll be removing those notes a few days to a week after posting them, so check back sometimes if you want to read them all. They will sometimes be very spoiler heavy though, so be careful if you don't want things ruined. My most recent note was about the upcoming Crown Game, and it has pretty big ramifications for the rest of the fic, despite being such a small event._

 _Anyway as always, I'm open to reviews and PMs at any time, though I might take a day to get back to you. See you next time!_


	5. 2F - Han Sung Yu's Test

_A/N: I don't like pre-chapter A/Ns, so I'll make this quick. Han Sung Yu's test is psychological, so I tried to add some atmosphere. Try to keep in mind that Homura is only a ~14 year old girl, with at this point only ~6 months experience fighting witches. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

 _~Akemi Homura~_

"Hi! I'm the test guide, Yellowy." The teenager's voice rang out, cheerful and bright, like her yellow and black bee-themed clothing. "The test will be conducted one team after another. The remaining teams, please wait and follow the instructions of the guide robot," the girl said, and gestured to the side where a pink doll-like thing appeared, dressed in the same color scheme as Yellowy.

They walked over to Yellowy before most of the other teams, but there was already a few teams in the line when they arrived. Just three, which put them fourth as they lined up behind the last group.

"Well, let the test begin!" Yellowy declared, and then with a long drawn out creak, the door she came through reopened. "The first team may enter now."

At the front of the line, a group composed of a giant canary, a man with red hair and a bladed staff, and a short boy with one of the needle weapons Homura had noticed frequently since arriving here went through the door. She couldn't see much on the other side, just a dim room and another door on the far side. She only had a moment to look however; a moment after they entered, the door slammed shut with a dull thud, seemingly of its own volition. And then all was quiet.

Conversation slowly started up again in the wake of the test beginning, and when it became obvious it wasn't going to be as quick as the last one, Homura looked around. For the most part, teams were keeping to themselves, though a few Regulars were moving around and talking to other teams. Lero-Ro still loitered here, watching over the crowd motionlessly, but he smiled when he saw Homura looking. She looked away.

After the past couple timelines, Homura had become a quiet person. Spending a month eschewing unnecessary contact and killing witches by herself meant that she was unpracticed for starting conversations with people she didn't really know anything about. Lutos seemed fine being quiet too. Aya a couple times opened her mouth to speak, but each time faltered and returned to staring into the distance, thinking about something, and so their little group remained quiet.

With nothing to occupy her attention, Homura started thinking about the future. Each timeline was 46 days long. No longer, no shorter. Before that time was up, she wouldn't be _able_ to go back. Her shield would only stop time. Afterwards, every second she spent in the present timeline was a second missing in the next timeline. Plus, after the month was up, she wouldn't be able to stop time any longer.

Homura glanced at the face of her shield. As always, the hourglass's protective shields were up, preventing her from seeing how much time was remaining. They only went down when there was less than a day remaining, or... when time was stopped.

 _-Click-_

The shield spun, the glasses turned horizontal, the protective coverings sliding aside, and the sand stopped falling. Time was stopped.

She examined the glasses. The remaining-sand reservoir still looked full. It hadn't been long enough to be able to see a difference yet, although some sand had trickled to the other side.

 _-Click-_

So... she had 46 days in this tower. She wasn't sure whether she'd be back here in the future or not. Timelines didn't usually shift this much, if at all. No... this was the first time anything had changed without her being able to guess the cause, and tracing it back to herself. In this timeline, all she'd done was wake up. How she ended up here, she had no idea. Which meant... that she might end up here again. Might continue ending up here every time, from now on.

She shook her head. That was something to be considered if it actually happened. For now she'd work with the thought that at the end of this month when she went back, she'd end up back in Mitakihara. If she didn't find a way out first. And if she was really stuck here in this tower? There was always the Wish at the top. For now though, the best thing to do was to get as much information and as many useful tools as possible. No matter how the future and past would go, doing so would prepare her for it. And she _would_ get out of here. Madoka was counting on her.

"Aaaaaaargh!" A sudden chorus of screams had her whipping around to search for the source. But there was no dying people in sight, only... a speaker, set high in the wall. Why were they broadcasting screams? "Tzzzzt~" A buzzing noise came through next, and Homura glanced at Yellowy, the test guide. She had a pleasant smile on her face, still. It felt incredibly out of place what with the screams.

"Next team, please!" Yellowy said, gesturing to the door with an open hand, and a nervous looking trio entered.

"Well, that happened," Lutos said, and Homura turned to see him scratching the back of his head. "Looks like this test'll be just killer, huh? Hah!" Homura turned away. "Oh what, don't like my sense of humor? Whatever."

"That was a joke?" Aya asked.

"I'd like to see you do better," he said grumpily, and she saw him cross his arms out of the corner of her eyes.

Meanwhile, as her team joked, Homura watched as the other teams murmured quietly to each other, shaken.

"Wh-what was that scream?"

She heard one man ask.

"Are they dead?"

"What is this test?"

They said.

"Is this test perhaps... super dangerous?"

But where most seemed worried, Aya and Lutos just kept joking around. Did they know something everyone else didn't?

"Why aren't you two worried?" she finally asked, interrupting them arguing over who had a better sense of humor.

"Worried? Why would we worry? With you there, hah!" Lutos said, matter of factly. Homura tilted her head to the side, confused. What had she done to garner this much confidence? They hadn't even seen her do anything yet. And if they were just relying on her, then what if she failed?

"We'll be fine, Homura," Aya spoke up. "I'm not really in fighting condition right now, but our team is pretty good. We'll pull through. I can pull my weight even as tired as I am, and I'm sure this thing is good for something," she said, grinning tiredly and pointing her thumb at Lutos over her shoulder.

"Oh that's nice, next ti-"

"Tzzzzt~" the speaker suddenly resounded, interrupting Lutos' rebuttal.

"Oh! That was fast," Aya said. And it was. While last time it'd been at least five minutes, this time it'd taken only a single minute. And... there were no screams?

"Next team, please~" Yellowy said again, and the third team entered, looking much more confident than the second. Homura's team was going next, and she still didn't know anything about the coming test. What if it really was incredibly dangerous? Or what if it's something like Lero-Ro's test, and one of them can't get through?

Just then, a peculiar figure approached. He was a big thing, brightly colored, and... well, the closest thing she could describe him with is a plastic bag like the ones used in large trash cans, except painted neon yellow and pink. His eyes and mouth were two dimensional, looking like they'd been painted on, and were completely black. His whole body was rounded, his belly a big oval, his arms long tubes and fingers more tubes with rounded tips. He had no hair. He looked incredibly peculiar moving around, his eyes and mouth moving. It was creepy.

"Hey there, I see you look pretty confident," he said to the three of them. "Could it be that you've figured out the test?"

"Huh! Even if we had, we wouldn't tell you," Lutos said dismissively.

"Lutos," Aya said, "don't give away information!"

"Oh, so you _haven't_ figured it out then... In that case I want to give you a huge hint."

"Why would you offer us help?" Aya asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. Was she suspicious of the man? If he was offering help, shouldn't they just take it?

"Well... I worked out this hint from deduction, which means-"

"Which means he just wants to use us as guinea pigs," Lutos interrupted rudely, and glared at the neon trash bag. "Get lost. We aren't your tools, and we don't need your 'help'."

The strange person looked taken aback, surprise crossing his face. "So, you don't-"

"No. Go away," Lutos interrupted again, crossing his arms in a strange mirror of Aya.

The man looked at Aya, who was frowning, and then at Homura. She wasn't sure what was going on here. This... person, offered them a hint. Why was Lutos being so hostile? She didn't know who to trust though, so she decided to just side with Lutos, since she'd known him longer. And... because this neon colored... thing, was so off-putting. Decision made, she stared up at him with a blank face, offering no help.

"Alright! Alright, if you're sure, I'll go," he said, his arms raised up in surrender. "I hope you won't regret it..." he trailed off ominously, and began walking to the next team in line, standing a couple meters away.

"Lutos, why did you..." Aya asked, turning on him as soon as it was out of earshot. Homura also turned to look up at him, a question in her gaze. His outburst had really seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Bah, I know his type. His little 'hint' would be as helpful as it would be harmful. We don't need it. You had the right of it when you asked 'why'," he said, glancing at Aya. "Don't just trust anyone, always question them, figure out their motives. Most people aren't just going to help or give out info for free. How do we know his 'hint' wasn't just going to doom us so he'd know what _not_ to do? He could tell us to do something, wait for a scream, and then tell someone else something else for another test. Think about things, Almost Princess."

She sighed. "Please don't call me that... that disgusting epithet."

"What, 'Almost Princess'? Well, isn't it true?"

She glared at him. Homura could feel the force of the glare from feet away. Even more so than ever, Homura was curious about what happened to her.

"Alright, alright, sorry, jeez. Calm down."

"Hmph." She turned away, arms crossed.

Lutos sighed.

And time passed.

* * *

 _~Akemi Homura~_

Agonized screams slowly faded, and then the speaker let out a familiar buzzing noise. Homura shared a glance with Aya as they stepped over to the gesturing test guide. With an effort, Homura stilled her shaking hands.

"The test starts when you open the door beyond this one," Yellowy said with a smile as they approached the door. "Alright, I'll open the door for you."

With a long, drawn out creak, the door opened and revealed an empty antechamber. A single dark red door waited on the far side, and through it she knew the test-chamber lay, waiting for more victims to enter its maw. As they stepped into the dimly lit room, she glanced back. A few people were watching them enter, including Mr. Neon-Yellow-and-Pink. He was just standing there, watching them go, his eyes black and dead, his mouth stretched into an unnatural smile. She turned away. There were too many smiling people here.

The door slammed shut behind them, and a dead silence overcame the room. Until now, there'd always been noise; the wind through the grass, the sounds of fighting, the murmuring of conversation. But now, there wasn't a single noise. Quiet. It was creepy. And it was cold, too. Homura's sense of touch was dampened so it wasn't that bad, but beside her Aya shivered a little. She shared a glance with Lutos, and he stepped forward and opened the door.

The door opened with a push, and beyond it the test chamber was finally revealed. It was a very empty space. Most of it was just black; black walls, black floor. The only color in the room was from two places. One was a series of rectangles along the back wall, glowing red- no, those were doors. Twelve glowing red doors. The second source of color was from a folding screen emblazoned with a design of plants in red and gold and white upon white and black and gold backgrounds. And kneeling in front of the screen, facing them, was a blond person in blue and yellow robes.

"Nice to meet you, Regulars," the woman said, as their group stepped deeper into the room. "My name is Hansung Yu, your next test administrator." She smiled at them. "Shall we start the test?"

Homura glanced at the others. Lutos yawned. Aya was starting to look nervous, and was rubbing her hands together, but smiled at Homura when she spotted her looking. Homura turned back to the administrator and spoke with determination.

"We're ready."

"Good! Now usually, I'm just a supervisor on Evankhell's floor, but this time I will be directly in charge of this test. It's actually rather simple."

Homura was getting sick of everyone saying the tests were simple.

"Do you see all the doors behind me?" Hansung Yu asked. "Within 10 minutes, find the real door and open it."

"...What happens if we open the wrong door?" Aya asked.

"The wrong door?" the woman asked with a serious voice. "If you open the wrong door... You'll die."

Beside Homura, Aya rocked back on her heels. Lutos' gaze sharpened. Homura didn't react... visibly.

"So that's why those teams earlier screamed..." Lutos said.

"Indeed. If there are no further questions..."

"Wait, isn't there some kind of hint?" Aya asked, an alarmed expression crossing her face.

"No. There are no further hints."

"What? But how could we find the real door without any more information?"

"Tell me," the instructor spoke up, her head bowed slightly so that her face was wreathed in shadow. "Even if I did give you a 'huge hint'... would you even take it?"

The familiar phrase sparked memory, and sudden comprehension flooded Homura's mind. "That neon trash-bag... Was he...?"

"Hm? A neon trash-bag you say? Well, whether he was part of the test or not is up to you to decide. I'm sure he gave you some interesting information though, right?" The corners of the woman's mouth turned up in the slightest of grins, and Homura decided that she did not like this person. It had been a set up from the beginning. She'd sent that obviously suspicious person to mess with them! "Well then, the test begins."

And it was clear she wasn't going to respond to any further prompting, instead turning to begin preparing a drink, pulling a cup and some instant coffee mix from her sleeves.

There was a moment of silence as Homura stood there with wide eyes. The neon guy had been part of the test... Lutos had been wrong? Did that mean... they were going to die? No, as long as they worked together, they could solve this test, even without the hint. Aya or Lutos had to have an idea, right?

"What should we do?" Aya asked. Homura turned to see her biting her lip, as Lutos had a hand to his chin in thought.

He had been looking up behind them, and Homura turned to see a clock above the door they'd entered from. It was moving, but it was... off. Homura was very familiar with time, and that clock wasn't accurate. It was moving too fast. Way too fast. By the time it'd go all the way round with the hour hand, about five minutes would have passed.

"Shh, I'm thinking," he said, and waved a hand at her dismissively.

"No Lutos, this is your fault! If we'd at least _listened_ to the thing, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"...No. Chances are, that hint would've been misleading too. This whole test, it's just one big mind game. Isn't that right, administrator?"

The woman didn't respond to his prodding.

"How can you know that!? This-"

 _-Click-_

Aya was frozen in place, wildly gesticulating with a raised arm at a stoically standing Lutos, who was looking off into the distance but frowning as he tried to ignore Aya. Hansung Yu sat in seiza, frozen in the act of stirring the instant coffee into boiling water which had appeared from nowhere. The clock stopped ticking.

Homura slumped to the ground and let her mask drop. She couldn't stop time for long, every non-second wasted magic. Not much magic, not even a noticeable amount until around ten non-minutes passed, but still some. She needed to keep as much in reserve as she could, but for now, she paused, and let her true emotions show.

This world of stopped time was the only place that was truly safe, that she could let her guard down in this peculiar world filled with dangerous people and death. She'd been in this timeline for a few hours now, and was already exhausted from keeping her guard up.

She missed Madoka. That warm acceptance she always offered, the kindness that never faltered. From the first timeline, where she showed her confidence in dazzling displays of pink magic and saved her life with Mami, all the way through to the latest timeline, where she'd not become a magical girl until the very end, and remained the timid, shy girl that had seemed so alien throughout. No matter what, she'd always been there, and Homura had known that if she only asked, she would've been there to support her.

But here, there were no Madokas. She was surrounded by people that thought nothing of killing other people for no reason than being told to by a faceless voice. By people who were suspicious of every motive, convinced anyone they talked to might be an enemy trying to stab them in the back. By people that would happily send others to their deaths with a smile on their faces. The people here... they were so _cruel_.

And now the two people who had been beginning to worm their way into her heart were arguing pointlessly, and they were all going to die because one of them couldn't trust the helpful words of a kind stranger.

"Madoka..." she whispered in her empty world, no echoes resounding when the sound was stopped in time an instant after the word was spoken.

She didn't want to be here. Didn't want to be trapped in this Tower. Why was she here? Was this her punishment for failing or something? For letting Madoka become a witch again, she was trapped in this Tower for a timeline? If that was the case... she deserved it.

But Madoka didn't deserve to be forced to become a witch without her there to help. Homura might deserve this, but Madoka never would. For her, she would survive. She would escape from this Tower whether that was with time traveling, finding an exit, or getting to the top and using the Wish. She would escape, and then she'd save Madoka. ...And everyone else, too.

But for now, she was stuck here, for 46 days. Stuck with these liars, these murderers, these scum of the earth. What she needed to focus on was surviving, and getting out. She could deal with them for that long, and after that, she'd be out of here.

She rubbed at her cheeks, wiping away the moisture, and stood. There was no time to waste.

 _-Click-_

"-test is imposs- Huh?"

Homura had interrupted Aya's complaint with an arm on her shoulder.

"Stop arguing. Time is wasting. We can still solve this test," she told her firmly. When Aya frowned and opened her mouth to speak again, Homura glared. Aya sighed, and subsided. That done, Homura turned to Lutos. "Do you _actually_ have any idea how to solve this test, without the information that neon trash-bag was going to give us?"

"I'm thinking... give me a minute," he murmured, looking up at the clock once again. The hour hand was almost at 2 O'clock. If two revolutions was ten minutes, 2 O'clock meant... almost a whole minute had been used up.

Homura nodded in acknowledgment, and looked around the room. It was incredibly empty. There was only the instructors little area, the exit doors, and the entrance door and clock in the entire room. While Lutos thought and Aya worried, Homura went to examine the doors more closely. Each was identical; red, glowing slightly, and about twice as tall and wide as she was. There were no markings, nothing to set them apart.

The folding screen that was set up behind Hansung Yu had a design of silhouetted plants and flowers. It, too, gave no clues. The woman, Hansung Yu, was still sitting there in seiza. Her coffee finished preparing, she watched them. When she saw Homura looking over, she smiled.

What exactly were the rules again? Hansung Yu had said that there were twelve doors, and one of them was correct. If they opened it within ten minutes, they passed. If they opened the wrong one in ten minutes, they died. If they didn't open any within ten minutes, they were disqualified. That meant that there was a way out! If they couldn't figure it out in ten minutes, they could just be disqualified! She breathed a sigh of relief. What had Headon said... If she refused to take the test, she'd be sent to the 'Outer Tower' or something, to live an ordinary life? Well, she could just go back in time after 46 days out there, so it was no real issue. But there was no reason to give up yet. They had time. They could figure it out. Now, back to what Hansung Yu said.

Twelve doors. If they open the right one, they pass. If they open the wrong one, they fail. ...Wait, she never said there was one right door, did she? She'd said... 'find the real door, and open it.' Maybe all of these doors were the wrong ones? She said 'find the real door'. 'Find' it. Maybe it was hidden? Or... maybe they had to _make_ a door.

Homura reached into her shield. She had... a _lot_ of ordinance left over from the last loop. For just this though, she'd probably only need a pipe bomb or two. She could shield Lutos and Aya with her magic.

But how could she know if that was the correct response? No, most likely that wasn't the correct response. Three teams had taken this test before theirs. Two had failed... and one had passed. Which meant that the test could be passed without blowing up the room, and also that it was possible to figure out the solution. But how? It made no sense. How could anyone solve this puzzle with so little information?

"Ah! I've got it," Lutos suddenly said, interrupting her thoughts. She turned to see he'd approached a door, and before she could do anything, he reached out to the handle-!

"Wait-!" she cried. If he opened that door and he was wrong, and he'd been wrong before-!

"Hey!" Aya called at the same time, but-

 _-Click-_

-but the door was already swinging wide, revealing... an empty room beyond, with a single door on the other side?

In stopped time, Homura looked through. It was just... an ordinary room. Every single one of the doors opened into it. What did it mean? With little choice, Homura moved back, and prepared herself in case she was about to be attacked.

 _-Click-_

There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of clapping filled the room. Hansung Yu was standing now, an amused look to her face. "Congratulations," she said, "You passed the test."

Homura let out a sigh of relief at the news, and put away her gun. That relief faded quickly to anger at Lutos. He'd been acting so rashly, so thoughtlessly! What if he'd been wrong, _again_?

"Wait, he really got the right door?" Aya asked. "That's impossible..."

"Oh, thanks for the show of support. Of course I got the right door. It was obvious!"

"Then how exactly did you figure it out? I bet you guessed. You guessed, right?" Aya said with a scoff, but Homura could tell she was relieved.

"Shut up, girl. I know what I'm doing."

Homura glanced at Hansung Yu. She stood patiently, waiting for them to finish.

"How _did_ you figure it out, Mr. Fuorr?" Homura asked him, eyes narrowed.

He turned around, having been looking away the whole time. "Seriously? Neither of you two worked it out? And I told you to call me Lutos."

Aya shook her head. "Just tell us, you cretin!"

"Cretin am I? Hah! This cretin figured it out, and you couldn't. _All_ the doors were correct."

"What, all of them?" A confused look crossed Aya's face. Homura herself was confused. That was... pretty much the opposite of what she'd suspected.

"Indeed," Hansung Yu finally spoke up. "All you needed to do to pass, was open any door within five minutes. You opened a door in the second minute, so you passed. You figured it out... and you didn't even listen to the 'huge hint' we gave you."

"Then that neon trash-bag, he really was a test guide?" Aya asked.

"He was. You sent him away without listening, and yet still managed to pass. How _did_ you manage it, Mr. Fuorr?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at Lutos. He crossed his arms and glared back at her. "Well, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine too. But it looks like you all make a good team," she said with a smirk. "Congratulations. The test is over now, so let's say goodbye here. I hope to see you all on a much higher floor." She bowed.

Homura turned away, brushing her hair over her shoulder, and walked off, following after Lutos. A moment later, Aya fell into step behind her, and they left for the next room.

Perhaps it was time to have a little _talk_ with Lutos.

* * *

 _A/N: And there we go! I hope it turned out okay. I'm not good at strong emotions, because I don't feel them myself that much. *Shrug*_

 _Here you get to see some flaws all three of them possess. Homura is naive. Lutos is reckless and overconfident. Aya is hot-tempered and quick to blame. Should I really be saying this in an A/N? I dunno. I just worry I wasn't be able to convey it properly in the chapter._

 _One thing I'm having a little trouble with is keeping Homura in mind. ToG is so big it's easy to lose track of her, forget that she's really just a young girl whose been forced into situations that no-one should have to deal with. Thanks to Guest below, I was reminded, and I'll try to keep it in mind for the future. If I slip up and completely OOC AMGI Homura, shout at me, okay?_

 _I got my first big review a few days ago! I was so excited. It reminded me of some things, made me realize some others, and I couldn't help jumping around happily for a bit. I get like that about anything good and exciting though XD. I wanted nothing more than to message the reviewer, but... they were on a guest account T.T . So, dear Guest. Thanks for the review! You made my day. I welcome you to the Tower, and hope you enjoy your stay! It's a great canon. I'm glad I could interest you enough to read it! About Irregulars; I'll simply say that neither Lutos nor Aya have a normal understanding of what's common knowledge and what's not. They aren't exactly ordinary. I'll be unveiling their backstory later though, slowly. I've put a lot of thought into it! About Lero-Ro's speech; I assume by enemy with infinite possibilities, you mean witches? Problem with that is that for Homura, the witches actually are incredibly limited. Every timeline they'd be if not the exact same, then similar. The only reason they'd be different is if Homura affected them somehow, but considering Oktavia was the same twice with very different Homura interactions, I think we can safely say that if it's not Madoka, then every witch is the same each timeline, more or less. So, she's fighting the same enemies each time. In this case they're not limitless, and in fact it's Homura that's the unlimited enemy in this scenario. But I don't think Homura would link Lero-Ro's statement to herself._

 _FYI: This is the only time I'll answer any review in-chapter. It kinda annoys me when authors have like 30 responses to reviews at the end (or worse, beginning) of a chapter. So, if you want a response (and I will probably want to respond as well), create an account first! That way you can follow and favorite, too :D_

 _As always, I hope everyone enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy in the future. Send me reviews! PM me! And see you next time!_


	6. 2F - Crown Game Part 1

_Previously, on Accidental Magical Girl: Homura arrived in the Tower of God, where she finds out that in order to escape and save Madoka, she must climb the Tower. Finishing the initial test that Headon gave her, she arrived in the Floor of Tests, where she met her teammates Fuorr Lutos and Eurasia Aya (who is trying to hide her identity for some reason). They went through Lero-Ro's Shinsu test, and then entered Hansung Yu's Door Test. They passed it, but because of Lutos' actions, they almost failed._

 _And now..._

* * *

 _~Akemi Homura~_

The room beyond the chamber behind the doors was wide, and empty. An extremely wide comfy-looking bench with a cushion attached to the top stretched around all the walls. There were only two doors; the one they'd entered from and one on the opposite side. Homura was beginning to suspect that all the architecture in this Tower was wide and empty.

A single team was here waiting already, the second one to go through the test, the ones who'd finished so quickly. They were composed of a man in a peculiar gray shirt that went all the way to his knees, and two teens. One teen had twin swords sheathed in a cross on his back, and the other had a single sword, the same needle-like weapon she'd seen before. The needles seemed to be popular weapons. The two teens looked young, though not as young as Homura. All three seemed to be in good cheer too, laughing for no apparent reason, though the youngest looking one, the one with twin swords, stopped when Homura's team entered.

They were the only team here, so that meant that... the first and third teams really had been killed...

A pink doll like the one with Yellowy was waiting here, too. It seemed to be waiting for someone to have a request for it, hovering in the middle of the room idly.

Their group moved to the opposite side of the room from the first, and sat down to wait.

"I'm going to take a nap. All this walking around..." Aya said, and yawned. Homura quirked an eyebrow.

"So it seems the Eurasia Family laziness finally rears its head, huh?" Lutos remarked. Aya just ignored him, instead reaching into a pink cube that appeared hovering in midair. One side of the cube seemed to become permeable, and she pulled out a plain white blanket. Blanket in hand, she curled up inside it and fell asleep. The whole sequence had taken less than ten seconds, and the girl was already asleep, curled up on the bench swathed in the massive blanket. Lutos sighed.

"What was that cube thing?" Homura asked, "and… 'Eurasia Family laziness'?"

"Hah. That 'cube thing' was a Lighthouse. Remember we talked about them before? Light-bearers use them. They can also carry items," Lutos explained. "And as for the laziness? Yeahp, it's their 'thing'," he said, giving air quotes. "They're good with shinsu, are phenomenal Wave-controllers, and... lazy. I'm surprised. Most from that family are a lot worse. I noticed one guy earlier with the same style of blanket as hers, sleeping the whole time Lero-Ro was talking. You can bet he's from the Eurasia family," he said, nodding to himself. "And with the way Aya looks... I was half expecting I'd have to carry her around ever since we teamed up. She looks..."

"Yeah..." Homura said. She didn't trust these two, and wasn't sure she'd ever be friends with them, but... seeing someone looking so exhausted, worn out, torn up like that... It was hard not to care. "Well, what about you?" she asked, returning to the original question. "Is your family known for... anything like that?"

"Me? Hah! Hahahaha~!" Lutos burst out laughing. "Kid, I'm not from a Family. Do I look like some prissy rich kid to you?" he asked, still chuckling. "I'm common born, with a common life. I worked hard for what I have."

"Wait, so when you say 'Family'...," Homura said, emphasizing the word.

"I mean one of the 'Ten Great Families'," he said, air-quoting once more. "Descended from the ten companions of Jahad who originally came and began climbing the tower and all that nonsense." He obviously didn't think too much of them.

"'Jahad'?" Homura asked.

There was a silent pause, and she glanced over. He looked... conflicted.

"A-ah..." he said, and sighed. "That's right..." He paused again, and then turned to face her directly, looking down at her seriously. "Listen Homura," he said, his voice hushed to prevent the other group from hearing. "You... are an Irregular, aren'tcha?"

"I... Irregular?" she asked, unintentionally mimicking his hushed tone.

"Don't try to deny it. No one can be this ignorant of the way the Tower works, of who the Ten Great Families are, who Jahad himself is. _Everyone_ knows who the King of the Tower is."

"No, I- What exactly _is_ an Irregular?" she asked, confused. "I've heard it mentioned a few times, but..."

"...Shit..." Lutos leaned back, running a hand through his hair, glancing at the other group for a moment. They'd gone back to rambunctiously discussing something about a 'God of the Hohohhohoh'. "An Irregular..." he paused.

"Irregulars aren't bound by the rules," Aya's voice softly interrupted from within her blanket. She shifted a little, and a flap of her blanket moved aside, and a single pink eye peered out. She looked like a one-eyed caterpillar in its cocoon. "Irregulars open the Door themselves, they aren't bound by contracts, and whenever one appears, a storm is sure to follow. Nobody really talks about it, but the first Irregulars... were Jahad himself, and his Ten Companions."

"Yeah... and they completely toppled the way the Tower worked, destroyed everyone and everything in their way, and became the rulers of this Tower," Lutos continued. "Of course, that was thousands of years ago now, but their rule has remained unchallenged since."

"There has been more Irregulars since... and each one caused chaos in their wake, with monstrous powers greater than any before seen."

There was quiet for a moment, as Homura mulled over what they said. So... she was an Irregular? With a destiny of incredible power and chaos? What nonsense. She was so weak she couldn't even save Madoka once, even with the ability to stop and travel through time.

"This... doesn't change anything," Homura finally said. "All I want is to get out of this tower. Irregular or not, I don't care."

"Hmm..." Lutos hummed. "Well in that case, you won't mind me coming along for the ride, will ya? Being on an Irregulars' team... that's definitely a way to be noticed..." he trailed off, seeming to go deep into thought.

"I don't care. Come if you like. ...You can help me find a way out," Homura finally said.

Like it or not, she needed assistance for this. She still knew so little about this Tower, it was like a whole new world. How big was it, anyway? Down in the first test on Lero-Ro's floor, the ceiling had been so high... High enough for clouds to form, and the floor seemingly endless across.

"In that case, I'll be coming along too," Aya said, voice muffled slightly from the cloth. Her eye was closed now. "My family..." she paused, and then spoke resolutely; "I'm going to join with you."

"...Okay," Homura said, nodding. A new team...

She wondered what Madoka would think of all this.

Then, Homura remembered the previous test. The conversation about Irregulars had distracted her but now she remembered Lutos' actions.

"Lutos…" she began, her voice low, but trailed off. She didn't know what to say, really.

"Hm? What is it girl?"

"I…" He'd almost made them lose the last test because of his paranoia. But… he'd still figured out the answer. He'd recklessly gone for the door without talking to either her or Aya, but... He'd been right. "…How did you figure out the answer to the previous test?" she finally asked.

"Ah, that was easy enough. The clock was different, I know you noticed."

She nodded. It had been 5 minutes per revolution- wait… 'All you needed to do to pass, was open any door within five minutes.' Hansung Yu had said.

"Yeah, we didn't need that guy's hint. The answer was in the chamber the entire time," Lutos explained. "And we don't know what he was instructed to tell us, what that 'huge hint' really was. What if he'd said to open the door within 5 minutes, and we hadn't trusted what he'd said? Or what if he'd lied, and we did trust him?"

If it went like that… then they'd have lost.

"I understand…" Homura said. "Just… talk to us before deciding things, okay?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't let her gaze waver. He would either agree to decide things as a group, or he'd be a liability, and she'd need to find a way to get rid of him.

But, after a moment, he nodded.

* * *

 _~Akemi Homura~_

Teams petered in one at a time. Sometimes they came one after another, other times there were gaps of fifteen minutes or more between teams. In the end, they all came through, numbering just over twenty teams in total. Around seventy people passed... which meant that in the past few hours over 300 had died, for completely pointless reasons.

As before, a lot of the people were strange to Homura's eyes. She noticed a man being dragged by his teammates, sleeping in a more elaborate blanket than Aya's. So that was Aya's family member? They didn't look at all alike.

Some other strange people that entered was a giant shadow being, a small green lizard girl, and the massive humanoid alligator from before. When the alligator entered the room, their eyes met. His narrowed in recognition. Hers remained impassive. He snorted once more, and turned away, but never quite left his back open to her...

Some of the people moved around a little, talking to other groups, stretching their legs, and so on. No one bothered their group, and they didn't bother anyone else. Shortly after they'd stopped talking, Lutos had dozed off sitting upright, so it was just Homura sitting here with two sleeping teammates.

Despite so many of the other people being peculiar in appearance, many of them actually looked normal. The youngest was younger than her by a year or two, but the oldest was merely middle-aged. They were dressed in all manner of clothing, from traditional robes to modern attire. Some had weapons, but many did not. Some looked completely ordinary in every way, like a teen in a purple track suit and orange running shoes. His short brown hair and brown eyes meant that he'd have fit in in any kind of crowd back in Mitakihara. When it was people like him, it was almost possible to pretend she'd never left Japan.

It was a long time before the test came to an end. With her partners sleeping the entire time, Homura had little to do. She didn't want to de-transform, despite that maintaining the transformation took more magic, because she wasn't sure what was going to happen next. And also… she didn't have any clothes stored in her shield. Since she only had pajamas in her other form… She'd just have to stay transformed for now.

Since there was time, she took advantage of it to experiment with the Shinsu in this place. It was surprisingly easy to use, just very different from magic. Magic just did whatever she wanted it to. Shinsu on the other hand, seemed… alive. And it was eager to please. She held out a palm up in front of her, and a glimmering of light formed as Shinsu rushed toward her. Remembering that Lutos had mentioned using Shinsu internally, she tried to do so. Just as with creating a baang, it was easy. It was hard to tell how useful it was without causing a commotion though, so after a few moments she let the Shinsu go.

Experiment over, she was left with nothing to do. She didn't need to take inventory, she always knew everything inside her shield. Her teammates were both completely out of it. There were no witches or familiars to fight.

Her fingers itched. She wasn't used to wasting time like this. As a magical girl, exhaustion and injury could be wiped away through use of magic. Just sitting around and waiting wasn't something she enjoyed.

Eventually though, the door they'd come through opened once more. This time instead of Regulars, Lero-Ro, Yellowy, and her little robot came through.

"Did you have enough rest, Regulars?" Lero-Ro asked, striding to the center of the room.

Homura nudged Lutos awake, and Aya slowly flopped into upright sitting position. Part of the blanket rolled down showing her face and she yawned widely, covering her mouth with a hand without letting it escape the blanket's confines. She looked a lot better, for only having a couple of hours sleep. Still tired and worn out, but not drop-dead exhausted.

"I'm so happy to see you again!" he said with a grin. "Haha, I came here with very good news."

The expressions of most around the room were not enthusiastic.

"I talked with the top supervisor before I came here- She told us to give you a bonus game!"

"Sorry but..." the teen in the purple tracksuit she'd noticed before spoke up, "To us, it's not good to have more tests..."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but the bonus game has nothing to do with the tests. It is up to each team to choose whether to play the bonus game. There is no penalty if you don't participate," Lero-Ro explained.

A shared glance showed that her teammates were wondering the same thing; if there's no penalty, why would they agree to play? Some kind of reward...?

"However, the winner of this bonus game... gets to pass the final test of this floor, and gets the right to go straight to the next floor."

Homura sat up straight, her teammates likewise perking up at hearing that. The sooner she could get off this floor, the sooner she could get out of here, right? Actually, she still didn't have any idea how to get out of here. Headon had said the only way to get out was by getting to the top, but... that couldn't be right, could it?

"'The right to go to the next floor?'" the light-blue haired boy she'd noticed before called out. "Then what about the remaining tests?"

"They don't have to take them."

Lero-Ro paused as half the groups suddenly started talking among themselves, and waited for the noise to die down.

"The game is called 'The Crown Game,' and I will explain the details to you when we get to the game spot," he said, glancing around at everyone.

He raised his hand, and a light appeared there before expanding and encompassing the entire room. It blinded her for a moment, and after it faded Homura looked around to see that they were in a completely different area, with just her and her teammates present.

The room they'd appeared in was a massive cell, with the only features present being a large barred gate at one side, and a button above a leaflet beside the gate. Walking over to peer through the bars, Homura found a massive hall beyond them, circular and with other gates beyond which Homura could see other teams appearing with similar flashes of yellow light. Each team had their own cell, each one proportionate in size to the humongous room in the center. In the very center of the room was a large throne, and a moment after all the teams had entered, Lero-Ro appeared in another flash beside it. With him as a reference for size… That throne must've been over thirty feet wide and tall. He looked tiny beside it. Several people could probably lie down comfortably within it. What was the point of such a ridiculously huge chair?

"Now that you've all been transmitted to this spot, I will explain the Crown Game to you!" Lero-Ro called out as he leaned against the arm of the throne. "The Crown Game is in short, a 'Crown Stealing Game.' The team that holds this crown at the last moment, wins the game. It looks simple, but the rules are a bit complicated," he explained. "First is the time limit. A game consists of five rounds, and each round is ten minutes long. Only five teams can participate in each round, and the team that possesses the crown at the end of each round becomes the winning team to proceed to the next round."

So, that meant that the winning team of the first round had to win every single round in order to be victorious? And each round on, things would be easier for the ones that held the crown, because they'd have to defend it for less time...

"In the next round," Lero-Ro continued, "four new teams and the winning team from the previous round will compete for the crown. The true winner will be the team that has the crown at the end of the 5th round. And so you know, if you want to participate in the game, press the red buzzer at the entrance of each of your rooms."

So that was what that button was for! Homura walked over to it. There were a few words written on the wall saying to push it, and below it was a piece of paper attached to the wall; the leaflet she'd noticed earlier. Written on it were the rules Lero-Ro was describing.

"Only five teams can participate and it will be done in a first-come-first-served basis! If several teams press the buzzer simultaneously, the team that has participated the most up to that point will get the chance.

"Participating teams can fight for the whole ten minutes, but there _is_ a way to finish each round early. That is, to sit on the throne wearing the crown within five minutes. The moment someone sits on the throne, the round automatically ends! And the sitting team becomes the winner of the round.

However, some movement will be restricted. If there was a winning team at the end of a previous round that team may keep the crown... but the sitting team member must stay seated on the throne, wearing the crown. If the crown wearer comes off the throne or loses the crown, that team will be eliminated from the test, and if another team takes the crown and sits on the throne, that team wins the round!"

In a moment of quiet, Homura heard a muffled voice say something, and couldn't quite make it out even with enhanced ears. Not so for Lero-Ro however;

"Correct!" he called. "The winner of the previous round carries a big risk in the next round!" he said, lifting the crown up and flipping it onto his head. "But if you postpone participating because of the risk, you won't be able to get into the game at the end!

"Well... although there are a lot of rules and limitations, the point is that the team with the crown at the end of the last round is the winner. Don't think too much. You just have to steal the crown," he said, summarizing the test. "Oh, and one more thing; Another team from another test spot will be participating. It's a long story..."

A team from a different testing ground? A _single_ team from a different ground? What did they do to get singled out?

"Well! Check the details in the instruction book below the buzzer," he said, taking the crown off and returning it to the arm of the throne. "Now, let's start the game!"

* * *

 _~Akemi Homura~_

"I will count to 5! Any team that wants to participate must press the buzzer during the count!" Lero-Ro called. "Starting now, I will count for the first round participants!"

"One!"

Homura glanced at her teammates. "Should we wait a few rounds, or go out now?" If it was her… she'd probably wait a round or two, see what the competition was like. Save some magic. But… it'd be very easy to prepare for future rounds if they won the first.

"I say we go out now," Lutos said as he walked over to the button. "We can take 'em, they're just first floor baby Regulars. And besides…" he grinned sharply as he glanced at her. "I wanna see how you fight."

"Two!"

Aya got up from where she'd been sitting beside the wall, and stuffed her blanket into her Lighthouse. "I agree. I don't see many of the other teams giving us trouble."

Lutos laughed. "You sure you can even stay awake for this whole thing, girl?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Three!"

"Just you wait, I'll show you my prowess as a first class Wave-controller," she boasted with a grin.

"Wave-controller, right…"

"Four!"

"Then, you take the throne, and blast anyone that gets close. Homura and I'll guard ya, got it?"

Aya nodded.

Homura took a deep breath. "Then, let's do this," she said.

"Five!" he called, and at the same time her hand found the buzzer.

'Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!' it resounded, and two others echoed it from across the room.

In front of them, the gate opened, and Homura... got an idea...

Together, they stepped out into the Throne Room, and the Crown Game began.


End file.
